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New York Begins Public Gigabit Wi-Fi Rollout (theverge.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the music-industry-already-looking-for-a-way-to-sue-kiosks dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Workers in New York City have begun installing the city's first LinkNYC kiosks. The kiosks are free, public Wi-Fi access points, which are taking the spots formerly occupied by phone booths. 500 more of these hubs will be installed by mid-July, and the full network will eventually include over 7,500 of them. "Once completed, the hubs will also include USB device charging ports, touchscreen web browsing, and two 55-inch advertising displays." The displays are expected to bring the city $500 million in revenue over the next 12 years. When the project was announced in 2014, officials said construction would start "next year." They sure cut it close.

8 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Great place to spread malware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can set up your own hotspot and pwn a bunch of n00bs

  2. Who would plug into a random USB port? by TuballoyThunder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe I'm paranoid, but that just doesn't seem like a good idea.

    1. Re: Who would plug into a random USB port? by Obfuscant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As for data? The chargers don't use those pins

      How do you KNOW that the USB socket you're about to plug your device into doesn't use those pins? You control the device, someone you don't know controls the thing you plug it in to.

      After all, there are people who manage to install stuff into ATMs that can read and transmit card data, so putting something in one of these kiosks is not beyond the pale. And the kiosk provider could even justify forcing your device to enumerate by saying they're only going to keep track of what devices are plugged in.

      And yes, some chargers do use the data pins as a way of identifying known devices to which they should provide power and at what maximum current. Thus you have Motorola chargers that won't charge a Sanyo phone, LG phones that won't charge from generic chargers, etc. (Names used for example only.) I spent a lot of time trying to get one of my phones (now obsolete) to charge from a standard USB charger and I found there are at least three different data-line signalling systems that were in use. "How many ohms to which other pins" was the common way.

  3. Do these guys understand public infrastructure? by goodmanj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This sounded like a fine idea until they mentioned USB ports. Those suckers are gonna be full of gum, or worse, in 60 seconds. The fact that they're even trying to provide USB charging makes me worry that they totally don't understand how to protect public hardware from vandalism.

    If somebody taking a fire axe to your touchscreen isn't part of your interface design document, you don't know what you're doing.

    1. Re:Do these guys understand public infrastructure? by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The fact that they're even trying to provide USB charging makes me worry that they totally don't understand how to protect public hardware from vandalism.

      Pretty much same here. A public mesh network has lots of potential.

      Kiosks might work in trendy, well lit, low crime areas. With cameras. And regular patrols.

    2. Re:Do these guys understand public infrastructure? by rudy_wayne · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and NYC cops will descend on you in seconds

      Yeah, right.

      These will be vandalized and destroyed with in a week. They'll be as useful as the payphones they are replacing.

  4. Really? by ledow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The kiosks are free, public Wi-Fi access points"
    "the full network will eventually include over 7,500 of them." "The displays are expected to bring the city $500 million in revenue over the next 12 years."

    500m / 12 / 7500 = $5555.55 per year per kiosk.

    I'm presuming that's ALL advertising because - why would you pay to charge your phone or browse the web nowadays?

    But, let's presume that's true. If it brings in $5k per year per kiosk, how much is it going to cost to fit out? Gigabit wifi, some sort of Internet connection, two huge screens, some device managing the screens, cost of refit, etc. etc. etc. That's GOT to lose you several YEARS of revenue per kiosk almost immediately, yes? And then... quite where's the profit coming from?

    And that's not talking about vandalism, damage, wear and tear, weatherproofing, maintenance, etc.

  5. Here's the nut of it by Rob+Lister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All of the revenue comes from the two street-level 55-inch advertising displays. None of the revenue is going to come form the wifi/charging kiosks. What's that mean? The wifi/charging aspects will quickly fall into disrepair. There's no money in keeping them working.

    Those advertising displays have to bring in ~$500-$1000/mo to break-even. Will advertisers pay that much for street-level displays? Probably. At least in some neighborhoods.

    That 911 button is going to see a lot of LULZ action.